Artistic Outreach

To reflect its ethnic diversity, Cal State Northridge made a commitment this year to bring more Latino culture to its campus.

One way to achieve this is through art, so the first exhibit of the spring season at the school’s Art Dome offers a slice of Latino life.

Through Feb. 28 the work of popular Chicana artist Patssi Valdez will be displayed in the dome, a 4,000-square-foot temporary structure on Nordhoff Street, which replaced the gallery destroyed in the 1994 earthquake.

The facility’s poor lighting detracts somewhat from Valdez’s colorful, bright and animated paintings, which include images reflecting her life, gender and culture.

“This is a great outreach to our Latino audience and it helps other people understand us,” said Florentino Manzano, director of the Latino Arts Collaborative and the man who was instrumental in bringing the exhibit to the campus. “This is a great breakthrough that says we are here.”

The exhibit includes 18 paintings Valdez completed from 1988 to 1998, many of them borrowed from collectors and a few belonging to the artist. Valdez picked the brown color on the background wall inside the dome because she said it provides a contrast to her vibrant paintings.

“I wanted the gallery to look like a cozy home,” said Valdez, who grew up in East Los Angeles and lives in Echo Park. “I wanted people to feel comfortable, and white walls really wouldn’t have accomplished that.”

There’s another reason she picked brown. “It’s also a metaphor for brown skin,” she said.

Fewer than one-third of the Valdez paintings are included in the exhibit. “Initially we had 60 paintings to choose from, but they’re so powerful you can’t put too many on one wall,” said Louise Lewis, director of CSUN’s art gallery. “When Patssi came in with a book of all her paintings, we just fell over. They’re incredible.”

The more recent work includes “Little Girl,” a 1995 canvas featuring Valdez as a 5-year-old standing on a sidewalk that appears to have a crack. “It represents life and problems in the home,” Valdez said.

“Domestic Goddess” is a 1995 painting of a 4-foot-tall, green Hindu goddess. Valdez said it started as a portrait of her mother and ended up as a universal mom, with what appears to be a combination of several ethnic characteristics.

One of Valdez’s more popular pieces, “Cactus Queen,” seems to jump out as you walk in. The lively, 72-by-48-inch painting was inspired by a visit to Arizona.

“It’s the spirit of the desert,” Valdez said.

Among Valdez’s early work included in the exhibit is “Purple Couch,” a 1988 illustration of the cramped bachelor apartment she lived in as an art student at Parsons design school in Los Angeles.

“It felt claustrophobic so the painting looks that way,” she said. “I remember it so well.”

Valdez’s work has been displayed all over the U.S., parts of Europe and in Mexico.

Her paintings have been described as belonging to a style that includes Matisse and Picasso--the former for the way she handles pictorial space and decorative language, the latter for continuing the reinvention of the still-life tradition.

Valdez also designs installations, which look similar to theater sets. The one she created for the CSUN show includes many religious figures such as la Virgen Maria, Santa Lucia and angels.

The walls are sprinkled with colorful, miniature sombreros and there’s a lot of velvet, satin and bright colors.

“It’s like a three-dimensional view of a painting,” Valdez said. “It’s a place where I get to be really free and not serious.”

Those who find Valdez’s work too loud can stroll into the dome’s rear corner to view a small exhibit by Christina Fernandez.

It includes mostly black-and-white photos of her native Mexico and a variety of pictures of her as a young girl. Although they may be subdued compared to Valdez’s work, the photos also offer a slice of Latino culture.

BE THERE

Exhibit--Chicana artist Patssi Valdez’s paintings through Feb. 28 at the Cal State Northridge Art Dome, 18111 Nordhoff St. The dome is open Monday and Saturday from 12-4 p.m. and Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free and there will be a free reception for Valdez tonight from 7-9 in the dome.